Air-Exchanger with humidistat

[Armitagej]

Hello,

I recently purchased 1005sq/f a condo in Montreal(lasalle near the aquaduct and st lawrence river) and in the condo I have an air exchanger and a humidistat control.

The humedistat is a typical Broan humidistat http://www.broan.ca/product-detail.asp?ProductID=100164 and the air exchanger model is unknown.

The air exchanger is controlled by a dial (light dimmer) without anything written on it. The air exchanger is either Off (dimmer totally to the left click) or any variance that I set in between (typically I cannot hear the air exchanger fan once I hit a certain point)


Here is where the problem lies, the air exchanger will not dehumidify, I also have a wall mounted air conditioner (freidrich) that does not seem to dehumidify enough no matter what I do.

I constantly have to run a separate dehumidifier to maintain the relative humidity around 45% (and from jumping up to 60%).

Is this normal? will letting the humidity stay at 60% cause mold and other adverse health effects?

I just don't feel I am getting enough fresh air in the condo, and have noticed smells that other people just don't seem to smell, kind of like a mix between musty and wood chips smell.

Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated.
I have currently scheduled a thermo-graphic inspection of my condo and an indoor air quality test for sometime this week, is this the right course of action? Should they be able to tell me where the humidity/moisture is coming from?

regards,

Armitagej

[teddy bear]

You are on the right track. Enough fresh air to change the air in your condo in 4-5 hours will purge indoor pollutants and renew oxygen. Maintaining <50%Rh will stop mold and dust mites. If you do not have carpeting on concrete, 60%RH may be acceptable but not as comfortable. A simple measure of the amount of fresh air is the CO2 levels in the condo with a specific number of occupants. Two adults in a 1,000 sqft. condo getting and air change in 5 hours could be in the 1000 ppm of CO2 typically. With one person, the CO2 levels should be about 700 PPM for an air change in 5 hours. co2meters.com is a good sourse of meters to monitor co2. Monitoring CO2 has the advantage of telling how much fresh air you are getting during different weather patterns and measures that you take to resolve the problem. Keep us posted.

Regards TB

[teddy bear]

After I posted my first thoughts, It dawned on me that if your condo is wet when the outdoor dew points are high, you must be getting fresh air into the space. 50 cfm of 65^F outside dew point air dried down to 75^F, 50%RH, a 55^F dew point is about 2-3 lbs. of moisture per hour. If your a/c and dehumidifier are removing 2 lbs. per hour, you getting enough fresh air. Less moisture removed to maintain 50%RH means less fresh air. More moisture removed more fresh air. At a <55^F outdoor dew point, no dehumidification should be needed at 75^F. Get used to checking outdoor dew point against inside %RH & dew point. In a month or two, you will be concerned about humidification.
Regards TB

[Armitagej]

TB thank you for the reply.

What other methods exist for detecting moisture or leaks inside walls?

regards,

Armitagej